A £2m upgrade of underground power cables in the centre of Petersfield is moving ahead on schedule, says Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN).

The five month project to renew power supply cables started in April, and is scheduled to finish in August.

An SSEN spokesman said: ““We have currently installed around 350m of new cable in Penns Road, Lavant Street, Heath Road and Charles Street, with our teams having successfully completed all of their work in the latter.

“It’s vital that we keep the local community updated on our progress, and so in addition to hand-delivering letters ahead of each new section of work starting, we are also hosting weekly drop-in sessions at a stand every Wednesday at the market in Petersfield Square.

“These sessions, which have seen attendances growing weekly, are a great way for anyone who is interested in, or has a question about our essential work to come along and discuss it with members of the project team.”

During the work contractors are using barriers alongside trenches that emit bleeps to help warn blind and partially sighted people the barriers are there and to guide them to the safe side of the barrier.

Those with sight problems can download a free phone app that picks up the position of the barriers via GPS satellite tracking; once located the phone will emit different sounding pings when they approach the barriers, indicating which way they should go.

Chris Slingsby, SSEN’s Head of Customer Operations for the South East Region, said: “We want to ensure the public are safe in areas where we are carrying out essential work. We realise that during work on the roads and pavements in busy town centres it can be particularly challenging for blind and partially-sighted members of the community to go about their day-to-day business, and that is why we are using these Smart Barriers for the very first time.”